Was George Formby a time traveller? If so, then maybe he inspired this band on a trip to 1981
Hometown: Bologna.
The lineup: Gianlorenzo and Chiara.
The background: The last time we wrote about an Italian act, it was March 2009 and we were in thrall to Alessio Natalizia, a Turin musician based in London who "joined the dots between Kieran Hebden and Kevin Shields" and went by the name of Banjo Or Freakout. In fact, he still does ? he's just released a new album, and very fine it is, too.
We're not sure how incestuous their music scene is, but two years on, here we are with another Italian act, this one a boy-girl duo from Bologna, and "ecco!" (Italian for "lo and behold"), one of them ? Gianlorenzo, the male half of Husband ? used to be in a band with Natalizia. And as though to prove they share Italian alt rock DNA, there is some confluence of approach between BOF and Husband, with a similar balance between drones and melody, rhythmic finesse and electronic experimentation.
It might not be a coincidence that the night we first saw BOF live, at a venue in North London with ambitions to be described as a dive (in either English or Italian), Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 was also on the bill: BOF and Husband are total Space-heads, with nods to the 80s drone-rockers' psyched-out trance at every turn on their forthcoming Love Song/Slow Motion single. Maybe they should twin Bologna with Rugby.
There are other influences that we, using our special divining equipment, can detect from the three tracks of theirs that we've heard. Love Song sounds like 60s psych ? there is even a spooked, distracted quality to the vocals that is psych-ish ? given an electro makeover. Given the chattering synths and jabber of sequenced beats, it was probably inevitable that the track would be treated to a Moroder-style remix by Portland, Oregon's Soft Metals, another duo who, now that we mention them, we should feature in this column at some stage. Their expansive extrapolation of the original design has shades of Tiga's Sunglasses At Night (shades, sunglasses ? geddit?).
"B-side" Slow Motion is less commercially potent albeit equally appealing in its monotone way. Feelings, too, takes us back to the 80s, only this time to the murky electronica of Cabaret Voltaire circa Red Mecca, with its echo-laden vocals and sense of dislocation. With what sound like church organ chords sampled and tweaked and a Morse code stutter, it feels electronic but in a pre-digital way. The Eye recalls the avant-tribal beats of 23 Skidoo and features a locked groove with martial rhythms overlaid and a drone-voice intoning in a language that could be English or Italian, we can't tell. What really concerns us, though, is that Skidoo, the Cabs et al were happening 30 years ago. The thought occurs that maybe this music and the stuff that informs it will sound to young ears like it might have listening to George Formby in 1981. Talk about banjo freakout.
The buzz: "Odd-ball electronica and alt rock strangeness... hyperactive tribal Italo-pop jams and off-kilter drones".
The truth: They are to 2011 what banjo-toting northern cheeky chappies were to 1981. Possibly.
Most likely to: Be hailed champions of Italo-pop dronetronica.
Least likely to: Screech, "Eeh, champion!" in Italian.
What to buy: Love Song/Slow Motion is released by Robot Elephant on 16 May.
File next to: 23 Skidoo, Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide, Banjo Or Freakout.
Links: www.myspace.com/husbandworld.
Tuesday's new band: Down With Webster.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/28/husband-gianlorenzo-chaira-love-song
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